Former NFL player Tony Dixon, left, speaks with an unidentified person at the NFL Player Care Foundation Career Fair in Atlanta on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. The NFL Player Care Foundation was established in 2007 with the mission of helping former players improve their quality of life. More than 40 national businesses took part in February, including PepsiCo, where Dixon has been on staff since 2009.
The premise that every NFL player leaves the sport a rich man is as accurate as believing a football is round.
Yes, there are hundreds of players who earn millions upon millions of dollars — the guys at the top of the profession whose careers last far longer than the average.
Then there are the thousands of men who in their 20s or early 30s leave the game with a nice enough nest egg, but must find a way to support themselves and their families for the rest of their lives.
The NFL Player Care Foundation, established in 2007 with the mission of helping former players improve their quality of life, has created the Super Bowl Career Fair. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the third edition this year was conducted remotely through a career portal that allows employers to post potential employment opportunities directly to those former players. More than 40 national businesses took part in February, including PepsiCo, where Cleo Lemon, a quarterback with three NFL teams has been employed since last September, and Tony Dixon, a four-year defensive back with the Cowboys, has been on staff since 2009.
In his current role as director of customer management, Dixon helps recruit ex-NFLers to his company at the career fair. For years, he noticed a reluctance on the part of Fortune 500 corporations to go after athletes.
“It has taken the athletes who have had a successful career in these organizations to get the organizations to recognize the value they can bring, and they are adding tremendous value to these organizations,” Dixon says. “As many skills as we are taught through sports, they are very transferable to any organization. How to persevere. How to deal with pressure. How to have a short memory. How to be a good teammate.